Generation 4 OU-little help please?

[esubimaru]

I’ve made a team and I tested it out on shoddy battle a couple of times. I had some wins and some defeats and I think the team is doing pretty well.
Changes in Bold+Extra analysis

Skarmory @ Lum Berry
Keen Eye
252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 SpD
Impish
-Spikes
-Stealth Rock
-Roost
-Brave Bird

This skarmory is another set that I got from smogon. I didn’t use study as his ability since we don’t use OHKO moves anyway. Roost is good for lightning types. I allows me to heal and cuts from 4x damage to 2x. Brave bird has alot of power but the only drawback is the recoil but leftovers brings back part of the life lost. I changed whirlwind to stealth rocks so skarmory can set up both stealth and spikes. He can probably manage alot of common leads and if we come across a rapid spinner, i can switch to rotom. Brave bird is good against most fighting leads, but i can switch to gyarados just in case.

Blissey @ Leftovers
Natural Cure
252 HP/ 252 Def/ 4 Spe
Bold
-Wish
-Protect (thanks for the advice 2sly4u. i can make sense of this)
-Seismic Toss
-Toxic
Another pokemon that I got from smogon. This girl is to support the skarmory. If skarmory comes against a special sweeper, I can switch out with blissey. Wish is used to heal the team and herself. Toxic is for crippling the opponent. Protect replaced my previous sofboiled. I saw that since wish already heals. I have to protect to stay alive long enough for the wish. Thanks 2sly4u. Seismic Toss is the only attacking move and doesn't affect ghosts so i can switch out to rotom w for the shadow ball.

Heatran @ Choice Scarf
Flash Fire
252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 SpD
Naive
-Flamethrower
-Explosion
-Earth Power
-Dragon pulse

I decided to take out the kingdra and replace him with heatran. I can switch in on fire move and hit them with Earth Power. I i find something that is a great threat to my team and heatran has served his purpose of getting rid of the threats like dragonite i can use explosion on blissey or other bulky pokemon that might be a nuisance to eliminate. He might come in after skarmory since it tends to attract those fire attacks.

Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Levitate
252 SpA / 4 HP / 252 Spe
Timid
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Trick

Thanks to Arikado for this suggested set. I see that he takes care of rapid spin as he said. He takes care of my fight type weakness since fight does nothing to this guy. More over, if i have something that threatens me and the team, i can use trick to force him to switch out. Hydro pump takes care of Infernape and Thunderbolt takes care of Gyarados. Trick is to get those pokemon that like to set up with curse or dragon/swords dance to switch out. I was gonna switchout Jolteon with something else but i think this is better.

Lucario @ Life Orb
Inner Focus
252 Atk/ 252 Spe/ 4 SpD
Adamant
-Agility
-Close Combat
-Crunch
-Ice Punch

This is another set I got from smogon. I’m probably using too much smogon sets. I might just as well go for agility Lucario as well. I see how it has more features and speed will be very important when i want to clear out the leftover pokemon. Crunch is good against ghosts like gengar and dusknoir. I find a lot of problems with those guys with my previous swords dance set. The agility makes him faster so he hits first will all the moves instead of just extreme speed. after some thougth i decided to go with this one.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Intimidate
184 Spe/ 156 HP/ 96 Def/ 72 Atk
-Waterfall
-Dragon Dance
-Taunt
-Bounce

Thanks for all the advice 2sly4u...I saw how i lost alot against fighting types with my previous team. They only guy i was willing to send out was my rotom against him, and like Pepps and 2sly4u said, fighting pokemon is my weakness. This should take care of it and i can still stealth rock with my skarmory. I might also like it this way better. Instead of having a suicide lead use only 5 pokemon for the rest of the match, i can switch out and be able to use all six. Bounce would take care of fighting pokemon and i can always switch out to other pokemon if it gets threatened by a lighting pokemon.


Well...that was my team. I would love some suggestions and i don't mind criticism.
Thanks for the help...Tell me if the team needs further adjusting...

 

[aVocado]

Hey esubimaru, and welcome to smogon. :) First of all you need to expand your descriptions a little bit just so mod wouldn't lock this under rule #3 or whatever.

And about your team, you seem to have problems with Infernape. Huge problems. Nothing on your team can switch in into a Close Combat, and it can wreck your SkarmBliss core with it's mixed attacks, mainly Overheat and Close Combat. Lucario can't take any of Infernape's hits, and especially a mach punch or a vacuum wave. While Kingdra and Jolteon on the other side are also take a lot of damage from Close Combat.

Your team doesn't has no spin blocker either, which is a big deal since you use both spikes and stealth rock and depend on them to sweep with Kingdra and Jolteon.

I have a suggestion to fix your two problems: Switch Jolteon to Rotom-W. I can't see Jolteon doing anything useful on your team, but Rotom-W will block the opponent's rapid spin and also check Infernape with Hydro Pump. I recommend using a Choice Scarf Rotom-W.

Rotom-W @ Choice Scarf
Timid
252 SpA / 4 HP / 252 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
- Trick

With this, you can switch in on predicted Mach Punches and Close Combats and finish it off with a Hydro Pump or Thunderbolt if it's weakened enough. This Rotom can also check and revenge Gyarados.

Another suggestion, even though it's not as important, is to switch your Swords Dance Lucario to an Agility Lucario, it might not be as effective, but it's very good to outspeed choice scarfed threats. And it can do good enough damage to OHkO some Pokemon with spikes and stealth rock in play.

Lucario @ Life Orb
Adamant
252 Atk / 4 HP / 252 Spe
- Agility
- Close Combat
- Crunch / Stone Edge
- Ice Punch

Oh, and watch out for lead Machamp. It can DynamicPunch the fuck out of your team. Good luck. :)

 

[2sly4u]

Hi esubimaru, welcome to smogon.

Right now, the biggest problem I see is that you have zero way of dealing with fighting types. As the post above mentioned, Machamp (especially ones with Substitute) can come in for free on many pokemon and DynamicPunch all day long. Lucario is even worse, outspeeding/Extremespeeding and OHKOing everything on your team after a Swords Dance except a full health Skarmory (and Aerodactyl, but it's a suicide lead). Your only hope of not being 6-0ed by Luke is winning a speed tie, and that's a moot point if the opponent's is Jolly.
Infernape causes problems too, wrecking your SkarmBliss core and outspeeding Kingdra before a Rain Dance. Lastly, Breloom can come in for free on Blissey or Jolteon, set up a Substitute, and Focus Punch to its heart's content. Every time Breloom comes in, you're bound to lose a pokemon.

Machamp has very few true counters (Slowbro is about it), but Lucario and Infernape are shut down by Bulky Gyarados. Intimidate and a nifty Fighting-resistance mean Gyarados takes little from their STAB (Gyarados also boasts a Fire resist), and can set up in their faces. In addition, he's one of the best teammates for Jolteon, who can switch in for free on the multiple Electric attacks Gyarados will draw. Try using him over Aerodactyl:

Gyarados@Leftovers
Adamant Nature, 156HP/72Att/96Def/184Spe
Waterfall
Dragon Dance
Taunt/Earthquake
Bounce/Stone Edge

This variant of Gyarados plays much differently than the offensive one; instead of thrying to set up one turn and sweep, you're trying to acquire multiple boosts. Waterfall is your main STAB, while Dragon Dance is your boosting move. Taunt is standard in the third slot so you can set up freely against Stall, but Earthquake is acceptable as well if you want a OHKO on Lucario (almost a certainty with Stealth Rock damage). Bounce or Stone Edge round out your coverage nicely.

Without Aerodactyl in the first slot, you're free to make Skarmory your lead. He loses some longevity, but if you give him a Lum Berry he's a great counter to both Lead Machamp and Brelooms, if you can avoid Spore on the switch.

Now, for some minor move set changes. No offense, but your Jolteon move set makes little sense. It's too dependent on Rain being up, and using Roar on Jolteon negates his blistering Speed since the move always goes last. Right now, you're lacking a true revenge killer, so I would recommend switching Jolteon to a Choice Specs variant:

Jolteon@Choice Specs
Thunderbolt
Shadow Ball
HP Ice/HP Grass
Signal Beam

This Jolteon is designed to both revenge kill opposing pokemon and clean up late game. Thanks to Jolteon's natural speed, he can afford to run a Choice Specs instead of a Scarf. Thunderbolt is a much more reliable STAB than Thunder, so it's the first choice. Shadow Ball helps against Rotom, while Signal Beam is mostly filler due to Jolteon's poor coverage. The Hidden Power comes down to preference, but HP Ice is usually the superior option since it can nail the likes of Gliscor, Breloom, Zapdos, and Dragonite for Super Effective damage. However, HP Grass is an option too if Swampert really bugs you.

Last, Blissey never needs two recovery moves. I would replace Softboiled with Protect. This allows Blissey to use Wish to heal herself, and can also rack up Toxic damage and scout choice users.

That's all I have. Good luck!

 

[Iconic]

SkarmBliss + Jolteon is a good combination that I've used a lot recently because it shuts down offense almost entirely, but it's extremely weak to stall in and of itself. The rest of your team can do virtually nothing to an even poorly-played core of Blissey / Forretress / Rotom-A. Kingdra is probably your best shot at winning but between the common ScarfTar and bulky Waters you're going to have a hard time flat out sweeping. I'd say you should probably try out something that's a little more dedicated to breaking stall. SubSplit Gengar is a pretty decent choice considering it does quite the number to stall, blocks Rapid Spin, and can be used for Pursuit bait to set up Lucario. Also Gliscor is a HUGE threat to you, beating literally everything except Kingdra between Taunt, Toxic and Earthquake, so having Gengar to shut it down might be very helpful.

Just by glancing at your team, I find you could really really benefit from some spin support in one way or another. You could really easily slot Starmie somewhere, maybe a Life Orb variant over Aerodactyl because it makes a great lead and gives you something better to eat Water-type attacks, namely Gyarados's Waterfalls. If you do this, you can just simply give Skarmory Stealth Rock over Whirlwind. Another option would be to bump Skarmory to your lead spot and pack a more defensive Leftovers Starmie, which is a little better at handling Gyarados.

I also second the suggestion to give Jolteon Choice Specs with Thunderbolt / Hidden Power Grass / Shadow Ball / Baton Pass. Jolteon works amazingly well with Spikes on the field late-game. Just bring it in when everything is a little weak and Blissey is out of the picture, and you're good to go. Nice team.

 

[Chris Pepps]

Apart from Rotom-W your team is rather weak to fighting types defensively.
Perhaps swap Heatran For a bulky water type. If they are ground type it will also provide an extra immunity to electric types that could greatly benefit Skarmory and Aerodactyl.

I'd suggest either Swampert or Gastrodon (look up their defensive spreads on smogon)

Also, apart from Rotom-W with thunderbolt, you have little way of dealing large amounts of damage to water types. This is especially important considering many bulky waters are part ground type. Consider adding Grass knot to andy of your pokemon that can learn it to prevent it being a trouble for you.

Whatever you do, do not remove Rotom-W because at the moment he is basically holding your team together!

 

[Braseg257]

also, if you want to keep heatran and lucario, i suggest you to run hp ice over dragon pulse on heatran and change the ev spread to 252 spe 200 spA 52 atk or 252 spe 252 spA 4 atk or something similar. for lucario I recommend a swords dance set with extremespeed/ice punch, close combact, ice punch/crunch

 

[2sly4u]

The changes you've made are good, but I'm going to throw Gyarados out there again. As Pepps mentioned, you still don't have much of a way around Fighting types besides Rotom, and most Fighting-types have a Dark move to handle him. Rotom's lack of defensive EVs means he's OHKO'd by common moves like Machamp's Payback and Lucario's crunch. Moving Skarmory into the lead slot with Stealth Rocks over one of his other moves takes care of Machamp, and Gyarados is still a shut-down check to almost every Lucario. It's up to you, but Gyara just seems like a spot-on fit for your team.